Healthcare is teaming up with academia in Liverpool to launch the first ever Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC) that allows patients and service-users to co-develop the care they need and want.
The centre, which is brainchild of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Liverpool, is part of the new Mental Health Mission and will be given more than £10m of government investment.
Mersey Care say its new facility will design a ground-breaking ‘learning system’ that will enable treatments and innovations to get progressively more effective as they continue to be used.
Early intervention in psychosis, depression, children and young people’s mental health and other under-researched areas will be the focus of M-RIC.
“To improve mental health, the centre will advance understanding of how mental, physical, and social conditions are interlinked, and trial new interventions with industry in real life settings,” chief executive at Mersey Care, Professor Joe Rafferty CBE, said.
The University of Liverpool’s associate pro vice-chancellor for innovation, Professor Iain Buchan, explained that the M-RIC will have “particular depth in mental health data science and engineering” and will drive innovations and perpetual improvements.
The information from the Combined Authority-funded Civic Data Cooperative is set to support #LCRInnovation at our brand-new Mental Health Research for Innovation Centre (M-RIC) exploring new drug trials & even AI therapies to deliver innovative services.
— Liverpool City Region (@LpoolCityRegion) May 29, 2023
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Liverpool City Region mayor, Steve Rotheram, added: “It’s one of the many reasons we invested in an ethical Civic Data Cooperative, to allow local experts to analyse our residents’ health and wellbeing needs and to help us improve care and service delivery locally.”
Mersey Care believe the innovations that will be fostered at the M-RIC will have an impact on national and global scales as well as just locally.
Funding for the centre will be to the tune of £10.5m from the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Office for Life Sciences.
